Die Nacht
by WaveMoonstone
Summary: The Dawnguard are doing all they can to eradicate vampires from Skyrim but their numbers are slowly dwindling and dying off. With no other options left to turn too, the Dawnguard try fighting fire with fire. M/M


The night was young when he awoke with his side pressed against the cold rock of the dark cave. He rolled over and stretched like a cat as his eyes adjusted to the blackness; the inside of the cave was empty and unmemorable apart from the brown furry bats that had lodged themselves in nicks and crannies of the roof. Every night, he woke up to them squeaking and shuffling from above as they got ready to fly and pluck fat bugs from the night sky.

This night was no exception; as he quickly dressed into dark threadbare clothes, he could hear the flapping of wings and he knew they were slowly filling out of the cave. Once he dressed and grabbed his ebony bow, he followed them outside up through the entrance that opened to a crowded forest.

* * *

Vlad swiftly took a hidden path to a slight opening in the trees where a brook ran over the mountainous landscape. He loved walking through the forest; he loved the cool dirt and soft moss that went below his feet, he loved how the trees were so tall that they be ages old, and he loved the life of the night. Delicate flowers that only bloomed under the moon, fluffy brown owls, nocturnal creatures with large eyes, fish that glow when disturbed, and strange insects all gave life to the night.

He himself was a creature of the night, with glowing crimson eyes forever adjusted to the dark and a toothy smile. He wasn't always so, but he could hardly remember the days before he became a part of the night. The only thing he knew was his name that had been carved onto a leather strip tied around his ankle; Vladimir Glazov.

He drank the mountain water fast not feeling the teeth shattering cold only melted snow could cause. The stream had many scents both familiar and not. He could smell the doe that had drank here a few hours before, a fox, and the smell of a human. They used to stay away from the forest afraid of the fog and the shadowy darkness the trees created, but now a few men seemed to linger here for some unknown reason. A particular man had wandered near the hidden entrance to Vlad's own cave.

One night in the early evening, Vlad had climbed out the entrance and almost ran into a muscular blonde man who seemed to be lost in thought. His quick reflexes saved him from colliding into the Nord's armoured side and instead rolled into the bushes a few feet away, and the Nord didn't even notice.

Lost in though, he chuckled at the memory as he lay on a large flat rock that jutted out over the babbling brook.

* * *

Vlad spent a good portion of the night running around hunting large deer for meat and moon watching. When he was walking through the green forest he hear the angered war cry of a black bear to the West and found himself jogging towards it. He had a mission to kill every bear he encountered, which stemmed from the fact bears were wrathful creatures and it was not uncommon for them to kill over and over for no reason.

He arrived at an odd scene; the blonde man in thick, patterned armor was kneeling a hand covering a wound bleeding on his chest and other hand blotching an axe while the bear towered over him on it's hind legs. It let out another earthshaking roar but before it could do anymore damage to the Nord, he quickly let loose an arrow from his bow and it stopped and fell, arrow buried deep in it's eye. Once he was sure the bear was not going to move again, he turned to the bloodied blonde. The Nord moaned but didn't let go if his grip on the axe, and looked at Vlad blue eyes filled with renewed terror.

"Stay back vampire!" cried the defeated man.

Vlad did not know how exactly to respond, but now that he had found this strange foreigner dying in his forest, he was not simply going to just leave.

"Shhhh," hushed Vlad as he crept closer to the injured man.

The Nord put up what seemed to be his last defense as he waved his axe around trying to hit Vlad's pale skin, but it was proved to be in vein when Vlad climbed on top of the now eagle sprawled man and wrestled the axe from the blonde's callused hands.

"Stop that," Vlad said to the writhing man desperate to get free, while mentally preparing himself to heal this struggling man with his small knowledge of the arcane.

"Stendarr have mercy!" cried the blonde who finally ceased his vain struggles in overcoming the smaller man when he saw the glow of magic.

Vlad took the surrender as a time to heal the deep, jagged cut claw wounds with both hands pressed to the blonde's muscled chest. After a few moments the Nord opened his eyes, as he was not being torn apart by the vampire's fangs (a fate he had though was inevitable), and looked down to see pale hands with long fingers glowing against his marred flesh. Long tense minutes passed as the healing commenced, neither moving more than absolutely necessary.

At last, Vlad slumped back, panting. Using magic always drained him of energy and slowed recovery. Once his panting was back on a manageable level, he rose on shaky legs and backed away from the Nord, who in turn quickly scampered off the ground.

They both looked at each other like scared deer; crimson and blue eyes locked in battle making sure the other didn't attack.

Finally, Vlad backed slowly into the dark outline of the trees and vanished, running towards his cave as fast as his pale legs could carry him. Even though the night was not totally over, he had enough. He wasn't tired, but relaxing seemed all too welcome after his run in with the Nord.

* * *

When he awoke it wasn't from the squeaking of the bats or the sound of rain, it was from muffled footsteps climbing down the entrance to his cave. He was wide awake in a second, straining to hear the soft breaths the invader was making to live.

The footsteps crept closer and closer and suddenly stopped. Vlad was holding his own breath, as quiet as he could be, while feigning sleep curled on his side.

The silence seemed to stretch forever. Then out of nowhere, a calloused hand gripped him by the neck and Vlad started to fight and kick, and even try to bite, the hand holding him hostage.

"Pitiful creature," said his captor, and Vlad could, even in the dark, see it was the same Nord he had saved from the bear.

At that moment, a kick he landed to the man's legs caused him to swear loudly and release his hold on Vlad, who in turn scurried for the exit while the human stumbled around in the dark of the cave.

Vlad threw himself outside and was immediately reminded why he was a creature of the night; the sun beat down its burning heat upon him and his eyes watered painfully as sunlight blasted into his enlargened pupils. He could do nothing more than clamp his eyes shut as tight as he could and instinctively curl up. He tried running but he did nothing more than stumble a few steps in a random direction until he hit what he presumed to be a tree, hard.

He laid there curled up against the tree waiting for his death, which was surely why the Nord came after him. But it was okay. Everything dies, even him.

* * *

The Nord made it out of the dark of the cave and out into the light, where he was almost surprised to see the vampire curled up in the fetal position trying to protect itself from the sun. He never believed it would be this easy! As he drew closer to the naked pale being, it curled up tighter and he could see huge watery red eyes gazing up at him in terror.

He roughly grabbed the skinny wrists and tightly tied together with a piece of thick leather and did the same to his ankles, only pausing slightly to glance at the anklet already decorating the vampire's foot.

Now that the vampire was effectively restrained, he easily tied a piece of thick black cloth around the vampire's mouth, to keep it from using it's deadly fangs. This was the first time he had seen the vampire out under the light of day.

It had straight dark black hair that fell past his shoulders and now watering crimson eyes with huge pupils like any nocturnal creature. Its skin was a shade white so pale it could only have come from not seeing sunlight in decades. In body size it could be described as lithe, with skinny arms and legs and protruding collar, hip, and wrist bones.

It looked like it was hanging on the edge of unconsciousness from the shock of the sun. Ollrod picked up the limp vampire and carried it to his horse waiting on the edge of the dark and gloomy forest North East of Markarth. He had just enough potions to keep him from escaping until the vampire could be thrown in at the Dawnguard headquarters, their destination. Eager to get away from the gloom of the dark forest, Ollrod quickly galloped away, limp vampire in tow.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

I don't need to say that I don't own Skyrim or anything, yada, yada. I'll try to update within reasonable amounts of time, although that will be hard since I've been busy applying to colleges and hopefully I'll get a job soon. This story is farther set inside Skyrim and relates to some themes introduced in the Dawn guard but won't really intertwine with the plot much, so you don't have to worry about giant spoilers or anything. Read and Review :)


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